aid straight upon the _strata_, and were converted into secondary
deposits on the surface of the earth; when the lamplighter, coming by,
recognised the hard iron substance as the large main of the Equitable
Company. It became therefore necessary to relinquish any further
investigation on the spot originally chosen, and the matter was postponed
to another day, so that the great crustaceous and carboniferous question
remains exactly where it did, to the great injury of the harmony and good
feeling that has never yet prevailed, though it is hoped it some time or
other may prevail, among the inhabitants.

But though public investigation of geological truth is for a time at a
stand-still, we are glad to be able to record the following remarkable
instance of private enterprise:--

A very active member of the association--the indefatigable Mr.
Grubemup--determined to leave no stone unturned for the purpose of making
observations, went out, attended by a single assistant, and made a
desperate attempt to turn the mile-stone in the Kensington-road, in the
hope of finding some geological facts at the bottom of it. After several
hours' labour before day-break, to avoid interruption from the police, he
succeeded in introducing the point of a pickaxe beneath the base of the
stone; and eventually he had the satisfaction of removing it from its
position, when he made the following geological observations:--He found a
primary deposit of dark soil, and, on putting his spectacles to his eyes,
he distinctly detected a common worm in a state of high salubrity. This
clearly proved to him that there must formerly have been a direct
communication between Hookham-cum-Snivey and the town of Kensington, for
the worm found beneath the milestone exactly resembled one now in the
Hookham-cum-Snivey Museum, and which is known as the _vermis communis_, or
earth-worm, and which has always excited considerable interest among the
various visitors. Mr. Grubemup, encouraged by this highly satisfactory
result, proceeded to scratch up with his thumb-nail a portion of the soil,
and his geological enterprise was speedily rewarded by a fossil of the
most interesting character. Upon close inspection it proved to be a highly
crystallised rat's-tail, from which the geologist inferred that there were
rats on the Kensington-road at a much earlier period than milestones. We
have not heard that the ingenious gentleman carried his examination
further, but in the present